Bellioes
Smash Lord
BROKEN BANANAS AND PESTERING PEANUTS:
The General Diddy Guide
The General Diddy Guide
Introduction[/CENTER]
Hi, welcome to the new revamped Diddy Character Guide. If this is your first time using Diddy, you've come to the right place. Hopefully, this guide will give you all you need to need to know to be sucessful with our little monkey. So, without further ado, lets begin.
Table of Contents
I. Overveiw
II. Pros and Cons
III. Diddy's Moveset
IV. Diddy's Advanced techniques
V. Options for a given situation
VI. Diddy's Strategy
VII. Diddy's Statistics/Frame Data
VIII. Useful Links
IX. Credits
I. Overview
Diddy is a one of the few characters that plays with items, other notable characters being Peach and Link/Toon Link. What sets Diddy apart from the others, though, is that his metagame literally evolves around his little bananas. He has a plethora of tricks up his sleeve that are only possible with bananas. He even seems to have been built to handle bananas with his perfect glidetoss length and awesome dash attack (dont worry if you dont understand something yet, we havent gotten to the juicy part yet )
Before we get started on the actual guide, lets see if Diddy is the character for you;
Diddy is for you if:
You like to play with items and all the techniques that come with them.
You like to string attacks together.
You like to put pressure on your opponent.
You prefer speed over power.
Diddy is not for you if:
You prefer power over speed.
You like to kill early.
You like to be predictible when recovering.
You like to play offstage a lot.
You want to play a low tier character.
You like character with a lot of range.
You like to play the bigger characters.
You like to live to very high percents.
II. Diddy's Pros and Cons
If think you Diddy suits you then lets continue by looking at Diddys pros and cons:
Pros
Bananas!
Considered an MK counter
Very good at comboing
Very good at pressuring opponent
Doesnt have any unwinnable matchups
Bananas!
2 projectiles
Awesome aerials
Low lag after moves in general
Low startup of moves in general
Bananas!
Very easy to land kill moves
Useful specials
Cons
Lower killing power
Easily gimped
No disjointed hitboxes
III. Diddys Moveset Data
Before we begin, heres a quote from 4RCE about the kill percents and his testing method;
So, without further ado, Diddy's Moveset4RCE said:
Jab1
Jab2
Jab3
Jab: 4/5
Jab is Diddy’s fastest move, but it’s pretty inefficient because the third part, AKA Jab3 or the tail wagging part, can leave you vurnerable if you whiff it and even if it hits, it doesn't deal a lot of damage. The Jab however, gets a high rating because the first two slap animations of the jab set up for a grab (Jab1 and Jab2)... which is always awesome.
Note: If you use Jab all the way through without canceling into a grab, the rating is 1/5.
Damage Given: First part ~3% Second part ~2% Third part ~4-15%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Dash Attack: 5/5
Dash Attack receives a 5 because of its versatility. The cartwheel can pickup bananas, and combos into several different moves, the more notable ones being Utilt, and Fair. Check the playstyle section for a more complete list of combos. All in all, an awesome move.
Damage Given: 3-9%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Tilts
FTilt: 3/5
FTilt is a pretty reliable as a kill move assuming it hits which isnt that difficult considering its awesome range. The rating here is relatively low though because the set-ups into FTilt are basically just glide toss to FTilt which I only use when a stutter-stepped Fsmash doesnt hit. But I sometimes uses this when edgeguarding to surprise opponents. The moves horizontal knockback combined with the opponent being so close to the side blastzone is usually enough to ensure the kill. Just watch out or youll get punished because of its long duration.
Damage Given: 8-11%; Hands (~11.5%), Forearm (~9%), and Upperarm (~8%)
Kill Percent: 162-207%
DTilt: 4/5
Diddy’s second fastest attack. Regardless of how much damage it deals, DTilt gets such a high rating because it’s almost impossible to punish. DTilt is a great replacement for DSmash if you are worried about being punished. DTilt will normally connect 3-4 times if your opponent is at lower percents. Dtilt does two things very well; it spaces really well and, two, it’s great a pressuring with mind game since you can follow up with so many things. Try going for a grab since they’ll be trying to hold shield after youve hit them with 3 Dtilts in a row.
Damage Given: 7.33%
Kill Percent: Negligible
UTilt: 4/5
This move combos very very well. At lower percents, you can hit people with a Utilt out of a dash attack. Against heavies (Snake, DDD etc)and fastfallers (Falco, Fox, etc) you can chain 2 or even 3 Utilts in a row and then finish with a Usmash handing out maybe 30-40%. This move is also very quick and I love using this out of spot dodges against characters who are easy to juggle. So yeah, a great move to use.
Damage Given: 7.33%
Kill Percent: 135-185%
Smashes
DSmash: 5/5
Diddy’s 2nd fastest Smash Attack and easily the best. Opponents can’t DI out of it and it’s a great finisher after a forward GT. The only problem is that the attack leaves you open if you miss, but if you’re concerned about getting punished just replace it with a down tilt. If you hit when your inside your opponent, you can sometimes hit with both hits for an easy 30 damage
Its also good at pressuring shielders after a shielded banana toss shince it hits them too far away to punish you and it takes a nice chunk out of their shield.Damage Given: 16%
Kill Percent: 127-169%
FSmash: 4.5/5
Although it’s Diddy’s slowest Smash Attack, it’s barely slower than DSmash which makes this great. The only real difference between FSmash and DSmash is that FSmash is a lot easier to DI since it has two hits but it does more damage than the Dsmash.
Damage Given: 5-19%
Kill Percent: 112-157%
USmash: 4/5
I give this move a high rating because it has an amazingly fast startup time and its great at racking up damage. A lot of the time players won’t expect Usmash OoS and can be a great substitute to BAir if youre looking to mix things up. You can do it out of the dash attack and Utilts too. Just watch out. If this gets shielded, Diddy is once again an open target. Learn to use this well.
Damage Given: 6-17%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Specials
Peanut Popgun: 3/5
The popgun doesn’t do much when charged but it’s decent for baiting opponents when Diddy doesn’t want to approach as well as making other characters approach when they try to bait you. This can also annoy people planking the ledge. This move is great at manipulating the path of oppoents trying to return to the stage putting them in a better position for you to hit them back out. The gun can also do a surprising amount of damage when fully charged. When an opponent catchs a peanut, take advantage of their limited options and go all out. The lower rating is because of the lack of priority the move has.
Damage Given: ~5.6-18%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Barrel Rockets: 1/5 (Offense) 4/5 (Recovery)
Approaching with the barrels will most likely end up with you taking damage. Also, the chances of the barrels flying and hitting your opponent are about 50/50 (at best). If you hit them though, you won’t be punished and it will deal 10 damage with some insane knockback. A technique called barrel canceling actually uses the barrels flying around as an attack and will be discussed in the playstyle section. You can also spike if you use them just while an opponent is right under you. Very situational but useful to know.
For recovery, the barrels are pretty easy to gimp because of their low priority and predictible flight path. At the same time, Diddy can mix his recovery up lowering the probability of you getting gimped which is why this move gets a 4 in recovery.
Damage Given: 10.5%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Diddy Flip
Diddy Hump Attack
Diddy Hump Flip
Diddy Kick
Monkey Flip: 4/5
Monkey flip let’s Diddy mix up his recovery and his offense which is always nice. The fact that it can latch on to characters like a grab or turn it into a kick makes the move useful in many situations and very versatile. You smash ForwardB for more distance but a lower trajectory; on the contrary, you can do normal FowardB for less distance but a higher trajectory. Learn to use this move; there aren't many characters with an aerial grab and attack in one move.You can cancel the move in many differents ways; air dodge right before you land, jumping, aerials etc If you do the Monkey flip straight from the ground, you can cancel it with an air dodge or even jump out of it. If you Monkey Flip Kick with perfect timing from a standing postition, you can cancel the kick with an air dodge RIGHT before you land. The reason the flip does not get a 5 is because Diddy can be hit out of the monkey flip pretty easily.
Damage Given: 10%, 12%, or 15%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Banana Pluck: 5/5
This move is great for edgeguarding. Shoot a couple of peanuts at a recovering opponent and then pull a banana so that it falls in front of the edge. Another great tool for manipulating a recovering a recovering opponent.
Also, youre going to have to learn to pull bananas without getting punished. There are many ways to do so like pulling one right at the beginning of a match, for example, and Ill explain the more popular ways in another section. Remember that you will be using this a lot since its how you spawn your most useful tool in this game, your bananas.
Damage Given: 4%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Throws
Foward/Back Throw
Back and Forward: 5/5
Diddys most useful throws. They setup edgeguards, do decent damage and are great at keeping pressure on your opponent These are basically the same throws just in different directions. Although forward does more damage, back has a better chance of killing (the chances of getting a kill with a throw are unlikely). 99% of the time, this is the best throw to use.
Damage Given: FThrow (11.5%), BThrow (10.5%)
Kill Percent: FThrow (195-265%), BThrow (178-292%)
UThrow: 3/5
This one is kind of dependent on the character; since it’s a weak attack it’s not very “viable” but with characters like Snake, it’s great because it puts Snake in a position where hes at a disadvantage (in the air). If a character is susceptible to juggling (ROB, Snake etc) this is option that you should occasionally consider.
Damage Given: 9.33%
Kill Percent: Negligible
DThrow: 1/5
Tied for the weakest throw and doesnt allow you to follow. Back throw is normally always a better option and if you want to juggle, Uthrow is always the better option. Me, I almost never use this.
Damage Given: 9.33%
Kill Percent: Negligible
Aerials
FAir: 5/5
This move is AWESOME. I believe this move is a contender for best aerial in Brawl. I mean it has everything; range, power, speed, duration, priority, high knockback and versatility. It kills, picks up bananas out of short hops, combos from dash attack, Utilt, and even Nair and Uair. It outprioritizes several characters approaches and is just as good when on the defence than when on the offence. If you a recovering opponent with this, which isnt too hard because of the long duration and awesome range, they can pretty much say good bye to the stock unless they have some awesome DI. Dont forget that this move is like a sex kick; its strongest when it hits during the beginning of the move and its power diminshes with time.
Damage Given: 14.5%
Kill Percent: 141-185%
Bair: 4/5
Diddy’s fastest aerial that’s his best option for momentum canceling. Bair can connect twice at low percents and is a great option OoS. Even though the range on Bair is quite pitiful, that hardly makes the move any less viable.
Damage Given: 9.33%
Kill Percent: 153-215%
DAir: 3/5
The reason DAir receives a lower rating is because of its huge startup time lowering your chances of actually landing a spike with it. Since the games release, the amount of spikes Diddy, and other characters in general, have been landing has been decreasing. Despite being one of the best spikes in the game, the move has a slow start up and is easily dodged. A high risk-high reward sort of move; use this sparingly.
Damage Given: 12.5%
Kill Percent: Gimp, otherwise Negligible.
NAir: Depends
Nair is a move whose use is still debated among many of the Diddy mains. There are those who love this move for its comboability and those who say Diddy just has better options. Its really up to you to decide just how you would like to incorporate this into your game. Copy the pros or make your own uses, its up to you to decide the rating of this move
Kill Percent:
UAir: 3/5
UAir is definitely one of Diddy’s least used moves since Diddy normally avoids aerial combat. However UAir receives a decent rating because of its quick release allowing you to escape combos faster, ability to juggle if Diddy can bait the air dodge, and its ability to kill off the top for a surprise kill; this is especially good if your opponent expects a Fair and DIs upwards.
Damage Given: 11.5%
Kill Percent: 142-194%
Ledge Game:
Regular Get-Up -100%
Pretty good mix up, especially if your opponet waits back. Spot-dodges immediately after can throw your opponet off but as always, dont over use it or youll get punished.
Regular Get-Up +100
Very slow but can be used to fake out an opponent who shields in front of the ledge a lot.
Ledge attack -100%
His ledge attack isnt that good so you probably shouldnt use this to much. He has much better options.
Ledge Attack +100%
Too slow and very easy to see coming. It will alsays be better to Ledge Hop in this situation (see below for explantion of ledge hop)
Ledge Roll -100%
His ledge roll is actually one of the slower ones in the game. Youd probably be better off doing something else thought there are times where this could be useful ie. Marth spamming Dtilt at ledge.
Ledge Roll +100%
Pretty much the same thing as above but slower. Use with caution cause you can get hit out of the roll.
Ledge Jump -100%
This is a pretty good option because you can do a lot more once your in the air; falling aerials (land behind them if the shield), falling air dodges, monkey flips etc You can even do something as simple as drifting forwards so your opponent follows and then backwards again to land on stage or regrab the ledge depending on if your opponent took the bait.
Ledge Jump +100%
Same as above but a lot slower on the start up. You wont surprise anyone with this so its usually better to just go for a ledge hop.
Ledge Hopped Aerials
Arguably Diddys best way of leaving the leddge, especially if your opponent whiffs an attack and is lagging. To do a ledge hop, let go of the ledge with down or back and then jump back onto the stage. You are free to do any move you want. His Fair is by far the best choice but Uairs can net you some kills if your opponent predicts a Fair and Nair can set up some combos at lower percents. You can ledge hop behind your opponent and Bair them off stage (much harder to pull of cause of how much time they have to shield).
Dair really is risky here though you can punish spot dodgers with it.
Ledge Hop Monkey Flip/Monkey Flip Kick
This is actually very useful. You can flip over the opponent or towards them (especially useful against those who like to shield on the edge.) You can even play it little more risky and come back with a Monkey Flip Kick. Its has high priority and comes out pretty quickly but the start up time of the Monkey Flip gives your opponet ample time to shield. Use this with caution.
Bananas on the ledge:
There are several ways to pull bananas from the ledge. Some end with you having a banana in hand while others put one onstage such as the one on BF; wall jump *>banana pull > Forward B to ledge. Ledge hopped bananas into any of the other ledge hop options mentionned earlier works very well. The bananas stun the opponent just long enough for you to either hit them or land onstage safely. If a banana is near the ledge, you can instant throw it at them while rising from a ledge hop to surprise them and hopefully trip them allowing you follow up with whatever you want. Also, you can pick up bananas sitting near the ledge with aerials. If you whiff the aerial, just regrab the ledge. If you hit them just land onstage and continue to pressure them.
Random Ledge Tricks:
You can do any aerial, or or even shoot a peanut from the ledge hop and the move will finish before your too low allowing you to regrab it.
IV. Diddy Advanced Techniques
NOTE: Before you read on, if you have any questions about any terms or techniques mentionned in the guide, check Ingulit awesome thread; The Diddy Kongpendium
The techniques presented in this section will definitely improve your Diddy game once you can apply them to actual battles. They are techniques that we, the Diddy Boards, thought were most important to getting better with the little monkey. Before we get started though, I would like to point out that these are NOT the only techniques Diddy has. These are just the most important ones that should be mastered before you should even consider finetuning your Diddy with other techs. For a more complete list of Diddy's ATs as well as their descriptions, check the above link.
1.Glidetossing
This is Diddys bread and butter. Diddy and glidetossing (abbreviated GTing) is like oreos and milk. They were built for eachother; sortve like *insert funny analogy*.
What it is:
GTing is canceling your roll into a throw so that you get a sliding boost while throwing. The length of the slide differs from character to character but Diddys seems to have the best length. It’s not too long or too short. It’s right in the middle.
How to perform:
1. Roll in any direction
2. Cstick to smash throw a banana in any direction before the roll starts. If you want to throw in the direction you want to slide in, you can use A to do a weak toss.
If you cant get it, heres some tips; if you just roll, your hitting the cstick/A button too late. Just do it a little earlier.
If youre shield comes up for a split second and then you throw it, your hitting the cstick/A button before you actually roll or at the same time. Just slow it down a little. This doesn’t really require that much technical skill so don’t feel like you have to rush the button inputs. After you have the timing down, practice throwing in any direction while rolling in any direction. After 30-40 minutes of just GTing around in training mode, you should have this technique mastered.
1b. Double Banana Locking
Just cause you know how to GT doesn’t mean youll be able to beat anyone. You have to learn how to apply it to your game. GTing has many uses; it’s the ultimate spacing tool, mindgames, and of course, banana combos. In this section, I’ll discuss banana locking.
What it is:
Continuously hitting your opponent with two bananas to literally lock your opponent in the tripping animation. If done right, it is inescapable and you can laugh all day as your opponent gets bounced across the stage until the edge where you finish them off with a smash. If you go from one end of Final Destination to the other and finish with the forward smash, you can deal up to 45%.
How to Perform:
1. Have two bananas no more than one GT length apart.
2. GT throw forward the first banana.
3. Pick up and throw the second banana
4. You should end up right in front of the first banana (it bounces up after hitting the opponent)
5. Wait until the banana is low enough, then grab it with A and GT forward throw again (you might have to turn around before picking up the banana if the banana lands behind you)
6. Repeat steps 3-5 alternating between GT throws (step 5) and regular throws (step 3).
Practice this in training mode first and on a lower speed if you have to. Once you get a feel for it, put the computer on walk and try to do it. They’ll roll out if you do it wrong so you know youre doing it right when you can do on a walking computer. Thisll take a lot more time to master and then you still have to apply it to your gameplay but don’t loose courage. Youll get it soon enough.
Once you can apply it to your gameplay, you’ll see that you might have to change the steps since you wont always be in the exact same position every time you start a lock. You might have to GT forward twice before you can do it the regular way. Just keep practicing and then even knowing which throw to use next will come naturally to you.
Once you can lock your opponent, you should learn to recognize which finisher is the best. Grabbing after a banana lock is rare but against Wario, you can get a free kill off of a lock. Just grab him so that he’s over the edge in your grip. This will force him to air grab release allowing you to hit him with any aerial. Go for the early kill and spike him with a Dair.
But at higher percents, this technique becomes a necessity when going for easier kills. Diddy’s KO power is pretty low compared to the other high tier characters and he isn’t exceptionally good at gimping. Banana locking brings your opponent to the edge where it’s harder to survive a fresh smash allowing you to bypass his weakness of low killing potential. This is especially helpful against heavier characters like Snake and DDD who can easily live to percents above 200% if you’re unable to lock them to the edge. If you lock a Snake to the edge and hit him with a fresh Dsmash at 150%, he will most likely die shaving 50% off their lifespan.
So when your opponent is at killing percent, in my opinion, the Fsmash is better for when you get the lock at lower percents and just want to rack up damage. At higher percents, it’s easier to DI the Fsmash so I usually go for the Dsmash. But there are exceptions; sometimes, the last banana will hit the opponent offstage. The Fsmash wont hit here but if your fast/you see it coming, you Dsmash them.
Other finishers include Fair, Grab Releases to edgehog/edgeguard, and Fthrow.
NOTE: Earlier this year, ADHD discovered a way to lock an opponent with on banana. But after looking into it, several deemed the technique as 'too difficult' and 'situational' and so it was dismissed. Just recently, AvaricePanda has brought back to attention this AT and has shown the boards just how useful this technique can be. He has created a guide which can be found here;
Single Naner Lock Guide
1c. Dribbling
GTing is great at helping you space your banana throws but it can also get the benefits of the slide while still holding on to you banana.
What it is:
Dribbling is a way of spacing where you GT backwards while throwing the banana downwards. You can then proceed to pick it up before the slide is even finished giving people the impression that you just slid backwards. Yeah, all you melee veterans can compare this to the infamous wavedash.
How to Perform:
1. With a banana in hand, GT backwards and throw the banana down
2. Press A before the slide is over
If you press the A button but just slide back, it means that you hit A before Diddy is able to move again after a GT. Slow it down a little.
If you jab or do any other attack, you’re hitting the A button too late and need to speed it up a little.
There are actually many different variations of this. The version above is called single banana dribbling. You can also do this back and forth between two bananas. Unsurprisingly, its called double banana dribbling
. You can also dribble forward without using two bananas if you want to be a little more technical. Instead of just hitting A during the slide, you have to buffer a turnaround A. It has a more specific timing but looks awesome when you dribble back and forth with only one banana. This is called pivot dribbling. You can also change how you pick up the banana. Though its no longer called dribbling, I’m still going to put them here since they all stem from the same concept.
1. Instead of just hitting A, you can pick up the banana with a rising Fair (credit to ADHD for making this popular). One of my favorites to be honest.
2. You can DA forward instead of just picking it up. This isn’t as safe as the other options and I use this very rarely if ever.
3. And of course, there’s not picking up the banana. I find this very useful in the Luigi matchup since he doesn’t slide after tripping allowing you to combo him as you would any other character out of a trip. I used to have so much trouble killing him since the normal GT forward to smash combo wouldn’t work anymore. I also got the impression that this is good in the DDD matchup after watching ADHD versus Ambrose matches.
2.Short Hopping
Short hopping allows you to bring Diddy’s aerial game to the ground. It gives you a lot more options allowing you to mix it up between ground and aerial attacks. This will definitely step up your Diddy game and should be applied to your game as soon as possible.
What it is:
Short hopping is… well exactly what it sounds like, a short hop. Diddy’s short hop (SH for short) goes a little higher than Diddy’s head when standing. Yeah, its not high at all, hence the name, short hop.
How to Perform:
1. To perform a short hop, you simply hold the jump button for a shorter amount of time. There are several ways to do this though it is preferable that you learn to jump with the x or y buttons if you haven’t already. SHing with the control stick is a lot more difficult and definitely not worth as it will be harder to perform other techniques like rising aerials. There are several methods of actually hitting the button. You can brush your thumb of the side of the ‘x’ button or, if you use the ‘y’ button to jump, you can slide your thumb of the button. You can learn to press the whole button with your thumb but it’s a lot easier to accidentally full hop then the above methods and is advised against. It doesn’t take long to master once you know how you’re going to do it. Just go to training mode and practice SHing around. Do it from dashes, out of runs, out of shields etc. Once you have it done, its time to like at some applications.
Now that you can short hop on command, its time to look at the some of the abundant applications pertaining to this versatile technique.
Lets start with the most basic one, using aerials. If you read the moveset section, you already know just how good Diddy’s Fair is. It has combos out of several moves like the dash attack and Utilt. It has the same damage and knockback as several smashes and is extremely fast for its level of power. It even has the bonus of being an aerial allowing you to use it offstage for early kills; something no smash attack can do. This move is good period. Now imagine being able to take this move to the ground too. With short hopping, it’s possible. Now you aren’t just limited to using it in the air but you can hit grounded opponents with it too.
Another good technique are rising aerials out of a short hop. This is where it becomes so much easier to use the x or y buttons to SH. A rising aerial is basically just using an aerial while rising from a SH or FH meaning immediately after you leave the ground. It’s a lot faster than SH and then doing the aerial at the peak and it allows you to fit more aerials into one jump (in the case of the Bair)/finish an aerial completely in the air allowing you to land with no lag (all of Diddy’s aerials). You can pick up grounded bananas with a rising Fair/Bair. As I said in the dribbling section, I love doing this out of a dribble to surprise opponents who try to approach from the air.
You can do two Bairs in one short hop if the first Bair is a rising one. And you’re not just limited to doing too Bair; Nair, Uair, or even a Fair are other possibilities (just be careful with the ending lag on the Fair). Bair to Nair is my favorite not only for combos, but also for some nice shield pressure if I end up behind my opponent.
You can also use SHing to mindgame your opponent into reacting prematurely. Lets say youre in a match against a Snake and you continually run up and SH Fair. You hit him 3 times with it and the fourth time, the Snake, the smart little guy, decides he’s going to shield the next time you try to Fair him in the face. You run up and short hop towards him only to see his shield go up. Instead of Fairing his shield and getting punished, you just do nothing and land followed immediately by a grab. He gets grabbed out of his shield and is like ‘what the **** just happened 0_o’. SHing hopping and then doing nothing is called an empty SH and is useful thing to mix into your game from time to time.
You can also use a technique called SHADing to fake out youre opponent. We’ll use the same example as above. The Snake, having wised up to your empty short hop tricks decides to Utilt you out of the short hop. That attack is seriously broken; its one of the strongest attacks in the game with an invisible disjointed hitbox in front of him, as much priority as Marths Sword (it clanks with his Fsmash 0_o) the ability to kill at percents most smash attacks dream to be able to kill at, and comes out almost as fast as our Fair. Diddy’s Fair vs Utilt in a match = Diddy dying of the top. Diddy, knowing how good his Utilt is, decides too to mix up SH approach again. He does the same thing but when he’s in range of Snake’s broken tilts, he air dodges on the way down. The Utilt misses and Diddy lands with no lag ready to punish him with whatever he desires. SHADing stands for Short Hop Air Dodge and is basically an empty short hop with invincibility frames. Mixing this into your game too will leave your opponent guessing each time you short hop at them and turn them into a really mess if you keep punishing them for guessing wrong.
Before we continue on to the next AT, let me point out some more specific uses. You can SH banana throw against character like ROB and DDD who have low projectiles that block Diddy’s regular GT approach ie. The Gyro and Waddle Dees/Doos for the characters mentioned above. This is a great way to keep up the pressure with bananas while remaining mobile and is great when mixed in with full hop banana tosses and GTed bananas.
SHed rising aerials out of shield are a great way to punish the lag of a move that connects with your shield. They have more range than a shieldgrab so if your opponent has good spacing, start mixing these into your game.
Catching a banana thrown at you with a SHed aerial is a great way to punish someone stupid enough to pickup your banana; especially if you’re in close range and the aerial connects.
3. Sheildgrabbing
Your opponent dash attacks A LOT. Instead of being stupid and letting him go unpunished, you let him hit your shield. All of sudden, he’s in your clutches and your opponent is like ‘wtfzors’. This is the most basic technique that is useful to any characters metagame. This is probably the first technique you will be able to incorporate into your gameplay since it’s so easy to use. It punishes almost all poorly spaced moves from smashes to specials, and from tilts to dash attacks.
What it is:
Sheildgrabbing is grabbing your opponent during the lag of his attack after he hits your shield.
How to Perform:
To perform this technique just:
1. Shield an attack.
2. Grab out of the shield with A (this assuming you shield with L or R)
Seriously, learn to use this ASAP. If your opponent doesn’t learn to adapt fast, you’ll be grabbing them every time they approach. Of course, at higher levels of play, your opponent will learn to space their attacks but don’t think this isn’t useful at higher levels of play. Just don’t spam it because you will be punished. Learn to see when an attack is poorly spaced against your shield so that you grab on instinct. Basic but powerful.
Since you’ve learned the more useful techniques of Diddy’s game mentioned above, its time to refine your gameplay a little with the more specific aspects of Diddy’s game.
4. Z-Catching
If you have, read on to learn exactly what z-catching is and its numerous applications.
What it is:
As I said in the Instant Throwing section, there many ways to catch items in this game; hitting A, air dodging, and aerials. And then there’s z-catching; the most versatile and probably most useful way to catch bananas. Z-catching is a technique where you can catch a banana with little lag afterwards meaning you’re free to do whatever you want immediately after. Definitely a must-learn technique.
How to Perform:
1. Get as close to a banana as possible while in the air; the banana should be touching Diddys body.
2. Hit the z button or whatever button you use to grab to immediately grab the banana outve the air. You should NOT air dodge. If you are, you are hitting z to far from the banana.
3. Follow up with whatever (throw it, z-drop etc)<
The applications of this technique are incredibly abundant. One very good use is on stages with platforms like Battlefield that normally limit Diddy’s gameplay but not with this technique. Since you can jump through platforms in Brawl, jump through a platform that has a banana sitting on it and right when you’re touching it, z-catch it. You can then follow up with whatever you want and you’re definitely not as vulnerable that if you had caught the banana with an aerial or an air dodge.
Another use, is after you pull a banana. It is much safer to z-catch the banana and not only will you be able to react faster to your opponent, but you find more opportunities to pull bananas since it’ll take you less time to get one out.
You can even catch bananas thrown at you by an opponent if you have good timing.
Those are, of course, not the only ways to use this technique. Find out your only style and learn to apply it where it works for you. Get creative with your banana game. This technique is very versatile and can work in all kinds of situations. Read for a smaller technique that stems from this.
5. Instant Throwing
Diddy is one of the few characters who can spawn items but he is the only whose entire metagame is based around them. To master Diddy, you must learn to incorporate every little trick you can into your gameplay in order to cause your opponent to trip up, figuratively as well as literally ^_^, giving you the opening you need to get through and combo your opponent while riding on a wave of momentum. This technique is great at speeding up your banana game and should be added as to your gameplay as soon as you’ve mastered the techniques above.
What it is:
If you want to catch a banana and then immediately throw it, you can cancel the catching animation of the air dodge to immediately throw a banana while you’re in the air. It should look like the banana just teleported to Diddy’s hand from the air and he threw it right out of the air. It’s very fast and very surprising.
How to Perform:
1. Air dodge catch a banana
2. IMMEDIATELY after, throw/drop the banana using any method you prefer.
It should look like you threw the banana straight out of the air without catching it. It’s an awesome technique because it’s about twice as fast as z-catching a banana to throwing it. So any time you want to z-catch and then throw it immediately afterwards, just use this technique instead. There are many possibilities like a banana sitting on a platform that you want to throw at an opponent; or even after a banana pull to surprise a rushing opponent. And my favourite way to use this technique; instant throwing a banana, that was sitting on the ledge, out of a ledge hop to surprise an edgeguarding opponent and completely turn the tables on them. Very risky but the payoff is worth it . As with z-catching, get creative with this and mix it into to your banana game to keep your opponent on his toes.
6. Shield Bouncing
A technique that stems from catching bananas in midair, this technique is more like an application of z-catching and instant throwing. Discovered by ADHD, this technique can put a lot of pressure on opponent shield and is an essential asset against Olimar and his Pikmin. It is also useful for gaining back control of stolen bananas. All in all, shield bouncing is a good strategy to know about.
What it is:
When ever Diddy’s bananas hit something with a hitbox (something breakable), they bounce up. This covers everything from stage hazards (ie. the pillars in Luigi’s Mansion) to Shields to, of course, the opponent himself. The idea behind shield bouncing is that you can do many things by recatching the banana out of this small bounce.
How to Perform:
1. Let banana hit an object with a hitbox.
2. Catch it out of the bounce using any method.
3. Do whatever with the banana
Applications:
This isn’t really useful if you don’t know when and how to use it. Here some of the most useful ways to use this.
1. When your opponent has control of your banana, shield right when he throws at you. The banana will bounce up so you can jump out of shield at z-catch to whatever you want.
2. I love using this against Olimars. Whenever your bananas collide with pikmin, they’ll bounce up like they hit a shield. Just recatch them and throw it back at Olimar. One of the reasons people say Olimar is such a hard matchup is because his pikmin block bananas. But with shield bouncing, if you do it right, the rate at which you throw two bananas should be faster then his pikmin toss. Meaning eventually, youll hit him because he can’t shoot pikmin fast enough to block all your bananas. Definitely helpful in that matchup
3. If your opponent keeps shielding your bananas, just SH over them immediately after you’ve thrown it and recatch it. You can then follow up with whatever you want my favourite follow-up being dthrow banana >fastfall>grab
There are of course others (ie. using shield bouncing off of Wario’s bike) but I will leave the rest for you guys to find. Be creative with this. You should never be predictable whenever you have a banana because of all the options you have. Just learn to spot which situation works best with which technique and how you can mix it up.
V. Diddy's Options
Ground Game:
Overview
Diddys ground game is incredible. His bananas allow him to control the ground in a way no other character can match. They give him the ability to control large chunks of the stage at a time and he has a decent non-banana game when hes onstage.
With Bananas:
Diddy was built for his bananas. His dash attack is the best when it comes to picking them up and his glidetoss is quick and short allowing him to follow up with any move immediately after the opponent has tripped (the only exception being Luigi who slides to far for anything but a grab). Diddy has some many tricks when it comes to bananas so it will be very difficult for your opponent to predict what youre going to do next. Mix it up with techniques like Dribbling, Popgun canceled GT's, and SH Fairs to pick up banans; the list goes on and on. You say your opponent likes to shield your bananas approachs? Start mixing in Diddy Flips with your approachs and he wont even feel safe while shielding.
Without Bananas:
Diddy is only average here compared to the ground games of other characters like Olimar. You dont want to be in this state for too long. Try to get a grab in to give yourself some time to pull a banana. Short hopped aerials and Monkey Flips can also help in giving you the space you need to get that essential banana out.
Air Game:
Diddys air game is pretty decent. All his aerials are useful though some are more than others. His Fair is awesome. It kills at decent percents, picks up bananas, and can combo from Utilt, Nair, and the dash attack if your opponent doesnt see it coming. If you hit an offstage opponent with it, they can pretty much say goodbye to one stock.
Recovering:
Diddys recovery isnt as good as say MKs but it isnt bad either. It is very easy to gimp Diddy because of his barrels have almost no priority and how vunerable he his when using them but there are ways of avoiding this. Dont be predictible with your flight path and make edgeguarding you a lot more difficult. Mix it up between aiming for the edge and aiming for the stage. Heres the most effective way to survive with Diddy;
1. Try to DI towards the corners of the blastzones. This will give you more time to cancel momentum and allow you to survive to higher percents. It also allows you to recovery without having to use your barrels.
2. Use Bair to get outve hitstun faster. Do not air dodge. If you have the habit of doing so, you need to stop. It is not better and youll die at lower percents.
3. Immediately after you Bair, hold down to fastfall.
4. If your still headed moving towards the blastzone after the Bair, jump and then bair again while fastfalling. If not, then just start drifting back towards the stage. save your jump and Diddy Flip. Learn to be unpredictible when recovering form above; use air dodges, Monkey Flips over their head/Diddy Flip Kicks, B-reversed peanuts, fast falled fairs, or if youre feeling risky, a Dair.
If youre unable to recover from above and are forced to use your barrels, use them below the edge but away from the stage. This will discourage your opponent from coming out to hit you and will also give you a better angle of recovery; you will come in from the side and where its harder for most characters to hit you. And from that position, its very difficult for you opponent to predict your flight path. You could aim for the stage, the edge, or even make so you stop just aboe the lip of the stage and fall to grab the ledge.
Just remember to recover differently each time and you shouldnt be gimped as often. It may happen once in but you can still be happy that Diddys recovery isnt as horrid as say Links or Ivysaurs.
VI. Diddy’s Playstyle
Diddy is very deep character meaning he has many options in any given situation. This allows us Diddy mains to all have a different style of play unlike other characters who usually a very strict playstyle. Even with all these differences, there are couple things you should know about Diddys playstyle.
Approaching
Diddy is actually good at approaching unlike characters like Captain Falcon. He has decent range, priority and good projectiles. Between the options he has on the ground and those in the air, he can be very hard to predict. Be sure to mix it up with things like dribbling backwards out of runs, peanut gun cancels, GTed bananas, Monkey flip kick/hump, or SH aerials/banana toss. You could even go for a straight forward grab or dash attack if you’re feeling risky. And if your opponent likes to spam a certain move like Marths UpB when you approach, start going in with running shields. After you block the attack, you’re free to do whatever you want.
Camping
Diddy can also be campy when he wants to. He has two projectiles and good range on a couple of moves, the notable ones being Fair and Ftilt. Use Peaunts to control the air and remember that you can cancel a peanut charge into anything you can do out of a shield such as a SH Fair or GT banana. Make sure to mix these into your game. And if your opponent accidentally catches a peanut, try to take advantage of the fact that they can’t use A moves and pressure them.
If they try to approach from the ground, Diddy is most likely superior here; just apply what you learned in the ground game part of the Options section. But I would like to remind you just how good dribbling backwards to charged Fsmash is against these people. It gets good damage and gives characters like Sonic a major headache.
You can even do it against people who approach from the air recklessly and don’t take the time to space correctly/analyze their options. I find this especially useful against characters that like to spam specific aerials (Kirbys bair, Marths Fair etc)
Gaining Control of your Bananas
Diddy can’t hold two bananas at once and it’s always possible that you will get separated from them so don’t expect to never have to face off against your own bananas. There are several ways to gain back control of your bananas. You can catch them out of the air with an air dodge or z-catch them. You can even aerial catch them to hit an opponent that try to punish your reaction with a GTed banana throw. If you recall; you can even shield bounce bananas of your own to shield to gain back control. Learn to spot which options works best in which situations on the spot (ie. Aerial catches against GT throws, shield bouncing when opponent can’t punish etc.)
Then there's the infamous Barrel Cancel. When you get hit while charging your barrels, your barrels fly around and deal a hefty 20 damage to anyone stupid enough to get in the way of their erratic flight path as well as some nice knockback. So the idea behind barrel cancelling is that you can UpB just before getting hit by a banana controlled by an opponent deploying your barrels and giving your opponent something to worry about while you pick the banana up. When barrel cancelling, you do not go into the tripping animation. You can also UpB towards a banana in your opponents control that’s sitting on the floor and deploy the barrels that way.
The only downfall is its accuracy. You have a very small chance of hitting you opponent so don’t expect to get many kills off of this. It isn’t very useful and should be used sparingly if you don’t want to get punished for it.
Heres a thread by Ingulit on how to increase the accuracy of barrel cancelling
WILL ADD WITH NEXT UPDATE
Getting the Opponent into Kill Percent
Diddy is a character that needs momentum. But once you get it, you can use it to deal a lot of damage prepping your opponent for the kill. Hear are a couple of useful combos that you can use to keep the pressure up on your opponent;
NOTE: The percents listed in this section are approximations. The combos may work a slitghtly smaller/larger percents but are in general, correct.
Low Percent Combos
'True Combos'
Dash attack>Fair, Bair, Nair, Uair 0-5%
Dash attack>Utilt 0-10%
Other Useful Combos
Utilt>Utilt
Utilt>Usmash
Utilt>Fair, Bair, Nair, Uair
Dtilt>Dtilt
Dtilt>Grab
Jab Combo>Dtilt
Middle Percent Combos 20-100%
True Combos
*In the process of Testing*
Other useful Combos
Utilt>Fair, Bair, Nair, Uair
Dtilt>Dtilt
Dtilt>Grab
Jab Combo>Dtilt
NOTE: A lot of these combos have a lower chance of working the higher your opponent’s percent/they see it coming. Try to just throw these randomly into your gameplay but don’t spam them because you will get punished.
Useful Combos for All Percents
Jab>Grab
Ground release>Dtilt
GT Banana forward>grab
GT Banana forward>Dash attack
GT Banana forward>Fsmash/Dsmash
GT Banana forward>Ftilt, Dtilt, Utilt
GT Banana forward> SH Aerial
Getting the Kill
Now that your opponent is ripe for the kill, its time to work on landing that final hit. Heres are several pointers that you MUST incorporate into your gameplay because Diddy needs all the help he can get to kill his opponents before they kill him with his mediocre killing ability and lighter-than-average weight.
1. Diddy has several kill moves. The most reliable ones being Fsmash, Dsmash, and Fair. Keep them fresh when going for the kill. Use jabs and…
2. PUMMEL to keep your other moves fresh.
3. Diddy has many setups to his kill moves. The best one being his bananas but there are others (edgeguarding, spot dodging laggy attacks)
4. PUMMEL
5. Get your opponent to the edge. The best way would be through a banana lock since it freshens your Fsmash/Dsmash at the same time but there are other ways.
6. PUMMEL
7. If you use one smash to damage your opponent at earlier percents, save the other one for when you really want to go for the kill; Personally, I save the Dsmash since its harder to DI.
8. Once again… PUMMEL
Edgeguarding
But before you can edgeguard someone, you need to get them off stage. Diddys has many options including; Fair, Bair, Fthrow/Bthrow, Fsmash, Dsmash, Ftilt etc.
Once theyre offstage, you can start to work on keeping them there. Diddy has some great edgeguarding tools with two projectiles and an aerial with a longlasting hitbox and horizontal knock back; the Fair. He even has a spike in the form of his Dair for gimping predictable recoveries like Falco and Snake. You can run of stage to a Bair and hopefully stage spike your opponent. Against characters with laggy animations after using their UpB (ie. Marth), you can force them to land on stage by grabbing the ledge and then hitting them back out with a throw or aerial during their lag. Use speed hugging to grab the ledge right when they UpB for invincibility frames if you need to. Use peanuts and bananas to manipulate the angle of your opponent’s recovery, then punish accordingly. I like Dthrowing/z-dropping bananas in front of the ledge to things like spikes or offstage Fairs. Very risky but the payoff is worth it.
Gimping
Gimping is killing your opponent at a lower than normal percent giving you an advantage. The most common move used to gimp is Diddy’s Dair. Against Wario, if you happen to grab him over the ledge, you can air release him (just don’t pummel) and then SH Dair him for the kill. If you grab Snake out of his UpB, don’t pummel or throw him and then he will air release. The catch is; he won’t have his UpB anymore. This is known as a cipher grab. You can also gimp certain character if you latch on to them with Diddy’s ForwardB over the edge. Just hold forward until they break out. Once they break out, you can spam jump to footstool them for the kill. And if they don’t struggle to try to pull you down with them, just hit jump when their low enough so that you survive while they fall to their doom alone. This is known as the Diddy Hump Grab Release to Footstool Gimp (lol we need a shorter name for that) abbreviated DHGR>FS gimp.
List of Characters that the DHGR>FS gimp works on
VII. Diddy's Statistics/Frame Data
VIIa. Diddy's Statistics
General Mechanics
Grab Range : 13th in game
Diddy Kong: 6, 10, 8 -> 8 (Character: Standing grab, Running Grab, Pivot Grab, Average)
Walking speed: 9th in game
Weight: 23rd in game
Fall Speed: 10th fastest in game
Running Speed: 9th in game (tied with Marth)
Horizontal Air Speed: 32nd fastest
Dodge and Roll Data
How to read this:
2-20 / 25 Mario
Invincibility duration/ Total number of frames
Spot Dodge Data
2-20/25 Diddy
7th fastest in game (tied with 27 other characters)
Back Roll Data
4-19/29 Diddy
2nd fastest in game (Lucario’s roll ends 2 frames earlier, tied with squirtle’s back roll)
Forward Roll
4-19/29 Diddy
5th Fastest (tied with Squirtle)
Air Dodge
4-29/39 Diddy
2nd best (tied with 12 other characters)
VIIb. Diddy's Frame Data
Illinialex24's THOROUGH Frame Data All credit goes to him
VIII. Useful Links
-Are you having trouble following some of the Diddy terminology, then go here for some great explanations and other useful links.
The Diddy Kongpendium
-Go here for a collection of videos from the members of the Diddy boards.
Diddy Video Thread
-Youve just won your first tourny. Go here to report all your results.
Diddy Tounrnament Results Thread
- Go here for some tips and tricks on how to beat that one character that just cant seem to win against.
Diddy Matchup Didscussion Main Index
IX. Credits
-Are you having trouble following some of the Diddy terminology, then go here for some great explanations and other useful links.
The Diddy Kongpendium
-Go here for a collection of videos from the members of the Diddy boards.
Diddy Video Thread
-Youve just won your first tourny. Go here to report all your results.
Diddy Tounrnament Results Thread
- Go here for some tips and tricks on how to beat that one character that just cant seem to win against.
Diddy Matchup Didscussion Main Index
IX. Credits
I, of course, had a lot of people help me make this guide and Ive dedicated a whole a section of the guide to naming those people.
So thanks to...
Le_THiEN for entrusting me with the task of writing the Diddy Boards Guide
4RCE for helping check my own work, testing kill percents, and putting together the moveset section.
Kaptain Kong for all his help with the strategy section, looking for frame data though we didn't need it in the end, and for writing moveset desriptions.
Teneban for his awesome and complete set of snapshots of Diddy
If I forgot anyone, dont hesitate to tell me because Im sure Ive forgotten at least one person.
